Andy Parker, whose daughter Alison Parker was shot dead live on air in Virginia last month, on Thursday addressed a Capitol Hill rally in support of a “day of action” organised by gun control groups.
Alison Parker died with her cameraman, Adam Ward, when they were shot by a former employee of their news station, WDBJ7. Their interviewee, Vicki Gardner, was wounded but survived.
Parker told the rally “we can, we must, and we will” prevail over opponents of new background check legislation, such as the National Rifle Association (NRA).
“Too many members of Congress remain in the pocket of the gun lobby,” Parker said. “That has got to change.”
The governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, and the state’s two US senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, also spoke. The three Democrats urged Congress to revisit a failed 2013 vote on legislation that would have required background checks for online gun sales and purchases at gun shows.
“Can’t we at least take a first step in terms of background checks?” Warner said.
McAuliffe said he had sent a package of gun-related legislation to the Republican-held Virginia legislature, where it died in a senate committee. The proposals had sought to renew the state’s one-per-month limit of handgun purchases, require background checks at gun shows and ban guns from those under restraining orders.
“I am sick and tired of gutless politicians who are scared of the NRA,” McAuliffe told the rally.
The 2013 federal proposals were sponsored by Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvanian Republican, and Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia. They were made after a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.
Thursday’s rally was was organised under the banner of a National #WhateverItTakes Day of Action by the advocacy groups Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.
In remarks released before the rally, Parker said: “After my daughter Alison was tragically killed two weeks ago, I said on national television that we have to do whatever it takes to fix this country’s gun violence problem.”
“I know that weakening the stranglehold of the gun lobby won’t happen overnight. I know, too, that passing background check laws won’t prevent all acts of gun violence from taking place.
“But we must keep the pressure on our lawmakers until they do the right thing. And if they won’t, find their replacement.”
A number of relatives of those killed by gun violence – and survivors of shootings – also attended the event.
Among them were Richard Martinez, whose son Christopher Michaels-Martinez died in the Isla Vista shootings of May 2014; relatives of victims of the Aurora movie theatre shooting of July 2012; and relatives of those killed at Sandy Hook elementary school.
